An Automatic Technique for Checking the Simulation of Timed Systems

International audienceIn this paper, we suggest an automatic technique for checking the timed weak simulation between timed transition systems. The technique is an observation-based method in which two timed transition systems are composed with a timed observer. A μ-calculus property that captures the timed weak simulation is then verified on the result of the composition. An interesting feature of the suggested technique is that it only relies on an untimed μ-calculus model-checker without any specific algorithm needed to analyze the result of the composition. We also show that our simulation relation supports interesting results concerning the trace inclusion and the preservation of linear properties. Finally, the technique is validated using the FIACRE/TINA toolset

Real-time systems refinement : application to the verification of web services

Les services Web sont des applications distribuées qui sont conçus pour atteindre une tâche spécifique de l'entreprise sur le web. Afin d'augmenter la qualité et d'élever la sécurité des services Web, la vérification de BPEL, un service web langage de composition est considérée. Dans ce contexte, le model checking est une des techniques de vérification les plus utilisés en raison de son exhaustivité, son application facile et automatique. Cependant, un inconvénient majeur du model checking est l'explosion combinatoire en cas de grands modèles. Le raffinement est une des techniques utilisées pour combattre au problème d'explosion. Dans cette thèse, nous étudions le raffinement des systèmes temporisés et son application à des situations réelles, à savoir les modèles BPEL. Pour cela, nous proposons d'abord une technique automatique pour la vérification de la simulation faible temporisée entre des systèmes de transitions temporisé basée sur des modèles issus d'un langage de spécification formelle, FIACRE. La technique est une méthode basée sur l'observation, dans laquelle deux systèmes de transitions temporisés sont composées avec un observateur temporisé. Une propriété de mu-calcul qui capte la simulation faible temporisée est ensuite vérifiée sur le résultat de la composition. En deuxième étape, afin de valider les modèles BPEL, nous proposons une technique qui consiste dans les étapes suivantes: premièrement, les activités BPEL qui ont besoin d'être abstrait sont fournis avec leurs abstractions. Deuxièmement, la source BPEL est transformé en FIACRE en fonction des choix précédents. Troisièmement, les propriétés d'exigences sont vérifiées sur le modèle de FIACRE abstrait. Enfin, les relations de simulation sont prouvés entre les composants concrets et abstraits du modèle.Web services are distributed applications which are designed to achieve a specific business task over the web. In order to increase the security and to elevate the safety of web services, the verification of BPEL, a web services composition language is considered. In this context, model checking is one of the most used verification techniques because of its thoroughness, its easy application, and automatic approach. However, a major drawback of model checking is the combinatory explosion in case of large models. Refinement is one of the used techniques to alleviate the model checking problem. In this PhD, we study the refinement of timed systems and its application to real life scenarios, namely to BPEL models. For this, we first suggest an automatic technique for checking the timed weak simulation between timed transition systems based on models originating from a formal specification language, FIACRE. The technique is an observation-based method in which two timed transition systems are composed with a timed observer. A $\mu$-calculus property that captures the timed weak simulation is then verified upon the result of the composition. At the second stage, in order to validate BPEL models, we suggest a technique that consists in the following steps : first, BPEL activities to-be-abstracted are provided along with their abstractions. Second, the BPEL source is transformed to FIACRE according to the previous choices. Third, domain properties are verified on the abstract FIACRE model. Finally, simulation relations are proven between concrete and abstract parts of the model

Practical applications of probabilistic model checking to communication protocols

Probabilistic model checking is a formal verification technique for the analysis of systems that exhibit stochastic behaviour. It has been successfully employed in an extremely wide array of application domains including, for example, communication and multimedia protocols, security and power management. In this chapter we focus on the applicability of these techniques to the analysis of communication protocols. An analysis of the performance of such systems must successfully incorporate several crucial aspects, including concurrency between multiple components, real-time constraints and randomisation. Probabilistic model checking, in particular using probabilistic timed automata, is well suited to such an analysis. We provide an overview of this area, with emphasis on an industrially relevant case study: the IEEE 802.3 (CSMA/CD) protocol. We also discuss two contrasting approaches to the implementation of probabilistic model checking, namely those based on numerical computation and those based on discrete-event simulation. Using results from the two tools PRISM and APMC, we summarise the advantages, disadvantages and trade-offs associated with these techniques

Formal Verification of Probabilistic SystemC Models with Statistical Model Checking

Transaction-level modeling with SystemC has been very successful in describing the behavior of embedded systems by providing high-level executable models, in which many of them have inherent probabilistic behaviors, e.g., random data and unreliable components. It thus is crucial to have both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the probabilities of system properties. Such analysis can be conducted by constructing a formal model of the system under verification and using Probabilistic Model Checking (PMC). However, this method is infeasible for large systems, due to the state space explosion. In this article, we demonstrate the successful use of Statistical Model Checking (SMC) to carry out such analysis directly from large SystemC models and allow designers to express a wide range of useful properties. The first contribution of this work is a framework to verify properties expressed in Bounded Linear Temporal Logic (BLTL) for SystemC models with both timed and probabilistic characteristics. Second, the framework allows users to expose a rich set of user-code primitives as atomic propositions in BLTL. Moreover, users can define their own fine-grained time resolution rather than the boundary of clock cycles in the SystemC simulation. The third contribution is an implementation of a statistical model checker. It contains an automatic monitor generation for producing execution traces of the model-under-verification (MUV), the mechanism for automatically instrumenting the MUV, and the interaction with statistical model checking algorithms.Comment: Journal of Software: Evolution and Process. Wiley, 2017. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1507.0818

Using formal methods to support testing

Formal methods and testing are two important approaches that assist in the development of high quality software. While traditionally these approaches have been seen as rivals, in recent years a new consensus has developed in which they are seen as complementary. This article reviews the state of the art regarding ways in which the presence of a formal specification can be used to assist testing